On Monday 18/09, we drive from Newport where the cars arrive to our hotel near New York or New Jersey City (TBC) Tuesday 19/09, we start our tour, and as most of us want to drive through New York, our route should take us through the city. Then we want to follow the Hudson river north towards Kingston, preferably passing via West Point. From Kingston, we drive through the Catskills, and via the lake road through Downsville, and further direction Whitney Point. In this area, we want to have our first overnight stay.
On Wednesday 20/09, we want to drive from Whitney Point Area, via the most scenic finger lakes route over Rochester towards the New York Canals. From here on, we want to follow the canals as much as possible untill we reach Niagara Falls, where we will have our next overnight stay. In Niagara, some members of the Canadian Borgward Club will come and greet us. We do not plan to cross the border with our cars, in order to avoid any customs issues. However, being there, we could walk across to the Canadian side to have a nice view over the Falls.
On Thursdaymorning 21/09, we could cross the border to see the Falls, and after that we want to visit Mr Carl Burgwards (no spelling error) Bicycle Museum near Buffalo. In the early afternoon, we drive towards Cleveland, where we plan to stay overnight. I put Westlake as a stop, but that s just to show that we would prefer to driver a bit passed Cleveland, so that the next day we don t get stuck in traffic going through the City. It s going to be a long drive, so we should mainly use the highway. It would be good though if you could find us a break area near the vineyards... (I hope Mr Burgward is still alive in which case he will be well over 100 now) I don t know if it will be feasible to visit Cleveland in the late evening, but it would be perfect if we could have diner in the city...
On Fridaydaymorning 22/09, we take the highway towards Chicago. I know that we re (relatively) close to Amish country, so it would be good if we could at least pass through one of their towns. On the other hand, it s going to be a long day, so we should not wander too far off the highway... You proposed to stay overnight in Joliet, but that s 1 hour commute on the Amtrak which, and that is already a quite long stretch. We would prefer to be closer to the city centre, maybe you can find us a hotel with an easy access closer by?
Since we prefer be closer to Chicago, doing the stretch to st Louis on the 25th, in one day seems to too long, so we want to keep Springfield as a stop... (Going to St Louis in one day will make that trip 50% longer... ) The next day, 26/09, we could have the St Louis stop, that will be only about 170 Km, leaving us plenty of time to visit St Louis.
In order to keep the distances under control, we should then have a stop near Springfield on the 27th, Driving to Tulsa the next day 28/09 as per your proposal. That seems to equalize the distances more... (The times and distances are most likely not correct, as we will be travelling on the smaller roads, and not the highways for most of the time..
On 29/09, we should then drive from Tulsa to Amarillo... That is also a very long stretch of over 600 Kms... Are you sure that Tulsa is worth the stop over Oklahoma? Changing the stop from Tulsa to Oklahoma makes the stretches more equalized. Don t forget that we will be driving 60 year old cars at reduced speeds, and we ll mostly avoid the highways with plenty of stops to see as much as we can. We ll be arriving very late at Amarillo... In your proposal, is it your plan to stay 2 nights in Amarillo? In that case, we should skip the Springfield IL overnight stay and drive straight from Chicago to St Louis as per your proposal... That way we will have 1 extra night available to recuperate in Amarillo By the way, when is the 2017 Route 66 festival in Springfield planned? Driving from Chicago to St Louis means that we will be staying there on 25/09, and all the other stops also move forward by one day... So, arriving in Amarillo on 28/09, staying for 2 nights... Then we can go to see the cattlemarket and eat a huge T-bone steak...
On Saturday 30/09, we drive about 300 Kms to Santa Rosa... On Sunday 01/10, we drive about 400 Kms to Grants... Maybe we could make a detour to see Santa Fe (about 500 Kms then) Do you think this is worth the detour?
On Monday 02/10, we drive about 350 Kms from Grants to Holbrook... (or maybe even further to Winslow, which is closer to the Meteor Crater On Tuesday 03/10, we first drive to the Meteor Crater, and from there on we head for Phoenix. There are 2 reasons that we want to visit Phoenix. First we drive through the Forests, and on our resting day, most of us will want to see the airplanes in the desert, which I believe are near Tucson... Phoenix is already halfway there. Alternatively, we can also drive over Flagstaff... (so follow R66 a bit longer)
On Thursday 05/10, we first drive the main road to Kingman, and from there on via the Route 66 to Seligman, and finally to Ash Fork. It s a relatively long drive, but since most of it is good road, it will be doable. On Friday 06/10, we plan to drive to Kayenta, via the Grand Canyon South Rim and Tuba City. Depending on when we arrive in Kayenta, we will drive that same day (or the next day) up to the Mexican hat and back to Kayenta for the hotel (providing the hotel would be in Kayenta)
On Saturday day 07/10, we plan to drive up to Mexican hat (of even Bluff if that would be a better plan), then drive back to Kayenta through Monument Valley, and from there on continue our road to Page. In the area near page, we can visis the Antelope Canyons and / or Lake Powell On our way to Page, we can visis the Antelope Canyons and / or Lake Powell. The Antelope Canyons is a minor detour in distance, but the view is spectacular... I don t know if it s possible to find a hotel further down the road (past Page), but then we could drive our cars over the Glen Canyon dam and visit the dam the same day...
On Sunday day 08/10, we plan to drive from Page (over the dam if not done the previous day) to Las Vegas with a short detour towards Zion National Park. This will again be a long stretch (450 Kms) so we will use the highways where possible... We ll probably be arriving quite late in Las Vegas... On Monday, we can visit Las Vegas (The strip, etc...) Would it be possible (affordable) to stay on the Strip? (On the second day at Las Vegas, we could do an optional helicopter tour over the grand canyon can you include this info in your roadbook?) On Tuesday day 10/10, we plan to drive Las Vegas to the Grand canyon Skywalk, mostly via Highway 93. From there on, we take the smaller roads to Kingman for the next overnight stay. (I would love to drive to Kingman via Hackberry (on R66), but I m affraid that this is over dirt roads, and that s not what we want to do to our cars...)
On Monday 09/10, we plan to drive to Barstow, again using the Route 66 as much as possible. The US Borgward Owners Club will come and join us in Barstow the next morning, and from there on, we ll be using the Route 66 (where possible towards Los Angeles. We will not drive through LA though, but rather deviate and move towards the PCH, and Santa Barbara. On Sunday afternoon, after the Borgward meeting in Santa Barbara, we will drive to Long Beach to drop off our cars in the port. Then we should stay 2 nights in that area, and fly back home on Tuesday 17/10...